A Quick Reminder…
by Suzanne on August 8th, 2009 | BBC Wikipedia
… that I can be mostly found over at Tumblr these days…
… where I scientifically collect, analyse and classify
• gruesomely spidery things with the ever astonishing Mr Substrom
• dusty and decaying things with Derek Nobbs
• top-sekret things with Chris Conn Askew
• technoetymological things with Warren Ellis
• eclectically dreamy things with Rebecca Kasner…
• … and things in jars with the Crappy Taxidermists.
Do join us.
I’ll be back here once I’ve organised all the 9834968751764276123887358 exhibition bookmarks I’ve collected since May.
Meh.
x
Suzanne
Shake the Disease
by Suzanne on July 8th, 2009 | BBC Wikipedia
© Suzanne G.
In case you were wondering: Yes, I’m currently struggling with what I’ve personally identified to be a degenerate East End variant of H1N1. Here in Bethnal Green you never really know what exactly you’re dying from, but you sure are constantly, constantly dying. Which of course doesn’t mean that you can’t go down to Iceland and buy frozen squirrel meat for your 8 children.. oh.. whooops.. it’s 9 now.
The Italian guy from Boots (I just call him Giuseppe because he probably calls me Heidi) over the road, however, believes that it’s only a “mild cold” and back home, mamma would just feed him with oranges from the family garden until he got better. The same gentleman also doesn’t like me buying their super plus tampons because “petite women shouldn’t do this to their bodies and use the minis instead” (I’m about a head taller than Giuseppe..). I actually had to unwrap a Boots® mini tampon and hold it against a q-tip for comparison to make Giuseppe understand that mini tampons were actually invented to stop infant nosebleeds. Anyways, I guess it’s kind of reassuring that Giuseppe knows all his customers’ body orifices and the strength of their blood-flow.
So just when I felt all poorly, abandoned and altogether sorry for myself, I suddenly had a crystal clear reoccurrence of the most perfect moment in my life ever: Budapest, September 2006.
Being there at the time, it didn’t seem significant at all, but in retrospect I now know that I’ve never been more at peace with myself and the world than in this really massive labyrinthine complex of industrial clubs/squats somewhere on the outskirts of town where I didn’t understand anyone (the Hungarian language fascinates, puzzles and scares me to this day) - surrounded by all those strange androgynous faces and tall Eastern European bodies all dressed in black.
Everyone was so damn perfect, so pure and proud, so challengingly arrogant and oh so sensuous. I wish I could remember the name of the place, but I’m somewhat sure it doesn’t even have a name. They had some kind of half-hour Cure half-hour Depeche Mode night going on and all the songs were playing in order of my preference and I sang my soul out and danced myself into oblivion so that I’m not even sure anymore whether that night really happened or whether this is just another fever hallucination.Â
You know, there is one thing that’s undoubtedly worse than death: Tesco’s Lemon & Ginger tea. It’s infernal.Â
Stay well everyone!Â
x
Suzanne
Brave New WurzelWorld®
by Suzanne on June 5th, 2009 | BBC Wikipedia
The Dove by Loretta Lux, 2006
The other day, on my weekly trip downtown to the world of commercial enslavement Forbidden Planet, I took a little detour to Borders and realised something that I want to share with you today:
From the hundreds of art mags on offer, maybe 2% manage to get the subtle harmony between form and function, content and advertising, humour and seriousness, right.
In my opinion these are namely: Cabinet, Parkett, Soda, Miser & Now, Garageland, Modern Painters, Hi-Fructose, The Art Newspaper and maybe - if I’m in a very good mood - Frieze.
From my perspective, the rest is normally:
a) pretty much replaceable from a journalistic and editorial point of view and basically just a huge waste of paper and ink
b) way too expensive
c) written for and edited by vacuous hipster art scum who buy and write about art because it’s “collectable” and “recession-proof”. Publishing a mag seems a “lifestyle choice” to them. In London, these people often have a stall at Spitalfields Market because it’s so damn cool to sell buffalo skulls and torn American flags to a public who’ll buy anything that looks like the interior of AllSaints. Hell yeah! o_O
d) written for and edited by the same vacuous hipster art scum who think that they have to put fashion editorials into art mags. Fashion IS NOT art. Unless it’s designed by Vivienne Westwood of course.
e) too much influenced by sponsors and ads (hello, Artforum?!)
So for the past few years, I’ve been thinking about the perfect publication that could potentially achieve the harmonisation of form and function that I mentioned above and I have yet to find such a publication outside the creative, inventive and insanely driven indie zine culture. Yet, I want my publication to be more formal and more like a themed art almanac and therefore it looks like I’ll have to do it myself.
Here are the core elements of the WurzelAlmanacs™ For a Brighter Tomorrow®:
- Publications will be a hybrid between a mag and a book - something to put in your bookshelf (i.e. decorated spines et al.) and enjoy with a cup of Earl Grey rather than a coffee table publication to impress your friends with. Basically, something that could be a present to someone you know very well and like very much. An art mag’s mag - an überartmag, so to speak. I’ll get Nietzsche to write the editorial.
- Issues will be more like volumes and they’ll be themed. This is probably the main aspect of this project since what actually annoys me most about art & culture mags is the multitude of apparently random, badly interlinked subjects. Wurzeltod® will offer a more structured German approach to this - Ordnung macht frei! I’m a highly organised person so I want to give you an organised publication with indexes, footnotes and all this nifty academic crap I actually left uni for. So yes, it will be quite cerebral. Written by and for art fiends - i.e a very focussed readership which I probably all know by name. The first volume will be themed around Porcellana Nervosa and will be an ode to my fascination for modern porcelain/glass art.
- Each volume will present maybe 20 artists who have been working on a certain theme or in a specific material over a period of time. They’ll all be given exactly the same space - hey, I’m Swiss and direct democracy is great fun! There will be images, detail views, exact specifications of the works featured, descriptive/analytic/experimental texts to each piece and artist and an interview. Then we’ll have an empty page to reflect/breathe/put the kettle on/test the smoke alarm/ring the dentist because that horrific pain just won’t go away and then it goes to the next feature. Basically: Neat, tidy, informative and unpretentious. Think Gestalten Publications who have been creating heavenly books for gods for the past few years.
- Exclusive artworks - screenprinted, numbered and signed by talented folks - will be in some of the volumes. Obviously only when this makes sense. For the porcellana, taxidermia issues etc. that would make little sense, but volumes with 2D art themes will definitely have exclusive pieces in them and even though they’ll be small in size, they’ll be epic in style, yo! ‘Tis something I’ve learned from many discussions with the great folks behind Milk & Wodka: Screenprint for victory!
- Ads? Hmm.. I don’t know. On one hand, I work full-time, I have no savings and all my earnings go towards rent and that stuff from Iceland they call “food”, so ads would make financial sense, I guess. On the other hand: Ads are ugly and distract from content. So maybe there will be removable ads - maybe stickers or something that people could remove from the mag and stick on their granny’s bum? I think everyone would be a winner.
- There will be exhibitions. Yes, exhibitions - each following the theme of a volume. Wooohooooo! Probably here in London, probably in the East End because I love this city and there are some great places here and even though most folks use opening receptions to get free booze these days, I still love the wacky art crowd here. And let’s face it - it’s recession, pubs are expensive, times are desperate, MPs buy designer duck houses with your hard earned cash, so you’ll all be welcomed to get pissed, take all your clothes off and whatever else catches your fancy. Just don’t frighten the artworks.
So yeah.. that’s what’s been on my mind for the past few years and I thought it was about time to outline these thoughts to you guys because you probably think I spend all my days in opium dens.
Feel free to contact me if you have an ardent interest in and vast knowledge of art or art history and want to contribute as a writer, interviewer, etc., but please bear in mind that this is all still in its very early stages.
Anyway, gracias for reading - gotta go to the opium den now.
Please listen to Regina Spektor’s new song in the meantime:
x
Suzanne
Joao Ruas at ThinkSpace L.A.
by Suzanne on May 11th, 2009 | BBC Wikipedia
Elephant Man by Joao Ruas, 2009, watercolour, graphite, collage & gouache
Joao Ruas (previously featured here) is the miraculously talented love child of James Jean from whom he inherited that breathtakingly epic and mythical artistic grandeur and Esao Andrews who seems to have infused him with a curious penchant for cold reddened noses and meandering liplines. And as you can tell, it’s a great mix!
Joao’s new show Inner Myth Pt. 1 opened at L.A.’s ThinkSpace the other day and will be on show through June 5.
Tengu by Joao Ruas, 2009, watercolour & gouache
On show: May 8 - June 5, 2009
Address: Thinkspace Art Gallery, 4210 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90029, USA, tel: (323) 913-3375 | Map
Gallery hours: Thur - Sun: 1 - 6 PM
Sneak peek | Preview works | Flyer
“Lush Life” Group Show at Roq La Rue, Seattle
by Suzanne on May 10th, 2009 | BBC Wikipedia
My Darlingtonia by Madeline Von Foerster, oil on panel
As you might have noticed, we’re running a bit behind with show announcements here at Wurzeltod® HQ, but better late than never, right?
The eagerly awaited Lush Life group show opened at Kirsten Anderson’s Roq La Rue in Seattle yesterday and will remain on show until June 2.
Featured artists include Madeline von Foerster (picture above), John Brophy (picture below), Laurie Hogin, Chris Conn Askew, Mia Araujo, Melissa Forman, Travis Louie, Kukula, Tin, Dan Quintana, Femke Hiemstra, et al.
This is an absolute must-see. Kristen’s taste is exquisite and the exhibited artworks won’t fail to inspire you!
Animism Regions by John Brophy, oil on panel
On show: May 8 - June 2, 2009
Address: Roq La Rue, 2312 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 98121, USA, tel: (206) 374-8977 | Map
Featuring: Joe Sorren, Chris Berens, Chris Conn Askew, Mia Araujo, Melissa Forman, Travis Louie, Madeline Von Foerster, Martin Wittfooth, Kukula, Ryan Heshka, John Brophy, Tin, Brian Despain, Glenn Barr, Dan Quintana, Femke Hiemstra, Laurie Hogin, Lisa Petrucci and Andrew Arconti
Gallery hours: Wed-Sat: 1 - 6 PM